Spasibo Rossija!

The coming of the summer solstice always reminds me of a seminal date in history that is now 65 years past.

On the 22nd of June, 1941, under the direction of Adolf Hitler, the armies of Nazi Germany invaded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Some 120 divisions strong, the Germans made deep inroads as they commenced the most titanic struggle of history.

Slightly less than four years later, Berlin lay in ruins and was under the absolute control of the Red Army. Hitler's lunatic dreams had been violently collapsed at an appalling cost. Soviet military deaths alone during the period 1941-1945 have been reckoned as over eleven million. Hundreds of German and German allied divisions had been ripped apart by the Red Army, thousands of Luftwaffe aircraft shot down on the eastern front. Immense areas of land were lost, and reconquered, by ultimately victorious Soviet rifle divisions and tank corps. Regions that had been historically German for hundreds of years had been torn away, forcibly evacuated, and taken as the spoils for the communist victors. It was no small affair.

And yet, the history of the war as presented in the west, particularly in public schools, could lead one to the conclusion that the eastern front is barely worth of mention, much less study. Americans often believe the U.S. practically won the war alone, a conclusion reinforced by the dramatic use of atomic weapons to force the end of the War in the Pacific. But the truth about the war in Europe is this: The credit for the defeat of the Nazi regime by and large goes to the U.S.S.R.

While the U.S.S.R. grappled to the death with the Nazis for four full years, the western allies had significant forces on the continent of Europe for only one of those years. Even then, the Western allies confronted only some 35 per cent of the German ground forces. While western allied operations were generally successful and even marked by occasional brilliance, it is a bald-faced lie to claim that the western Allies or the United States won the struggle against Germany. At best, the western Allies can claim to have been significant contributors to the defeat of Germany.

The Soviet victory banished German dreams of militarily dominating the continent and established Moscow as the preeminent European power for 45 years. A thoroughly chastised Germany finally realized that cooperation with neighbors was, indeed, the wiser path. And the U.S., happy to hail their Red Army allies while Germany was still a dangerous foe, quickly played down the extent of the Soviet triumph after the war was over.

If you have a moment to spare on 22 June, perhaps you may wish to heft a glass of your finest in the direction of the east, and to recall the unsung soldiers of the Red Army whose herculean efforts brought a close to one the most violent chapters of history.

Spasibo, Rossija.